Part 33
Summary As Stone prosecutes the case of a woman who killed her abusive husband, Benson and the Special Victims Unit wrestle with the duty of testifying against her. Plot plot Cast Main cast * Mariska Hargitay as Lieutenant Olivia Benson * Kelli Giddish as Detective Amanda Rollins * Ice-T as Sergeant Odafin Tutuola * Peter Scanavino as Detective Dominick Carisi, Jr. * Philip Winchester as A.D.A. Peter Stone Recurring cast * Vincent Curatola as Judge Al Bertuccio * Nicholas Turturro as Detective Frank Bucci Guest cast * Paula Malcomson as Attorney Stella Russell * Amy Rutberg as Annabeth Pearl * Art McFarland as Charlie * Manny Galan as Maintenance Man * Liam James Daniels as Bartender * Rachel Paula Green as Court Clerk * Mike Funk as Patron #1 * Lucille Hansen aa Patron #2 References references Quotes :Olivia: You have no idea what utter terror is. What pure and utter terror is. You know, they say that your heart beats faster, but that's not true. It doesn't. It stops. Everything stops. You don't breathe because you're scared that it might upset him. And if you get a cramp in your foot, you tell yourself, "Just let it throb" because you'll live through that pain. And that's a hell of a lot better than what what he'll do to you. And the pain is is so complete and it's so it's so overwhelming. You can go without food for... for three days and you don't close your eyes because you... because you're scared that you'll never open them again. You pray. You pray, "Please, God, don't let him climb on top of me again." :Rollins: Okay, Liv. I am so sorry. :Olivia: Nobody should have to live like that. Nobody. ---- :Stone: This is a very simple case. The defendant, Annabeth Pearl, hosted a dinner party with her husband, Thomas, at their apartment on West 26th Street. Three people ate New York strip, baked potatoes, and creamed spinach. Three hours later, when the guests had left and the dishes were loaded into the dishwasher, Annabeth put on her nightie walked into the den picked up the gun that was sitting on the coffee table, and shot her husband, Thomas, three times while he was watching TV. The detectives assigned to this case will tell you how they arrested Annabeth less than an hour later at a local eatery with the murder weapon still in her possession. They'll tell you how, without provocation, she confessed to the murder. Now, the defense will play on your emotions. They'll tell you about a bad marriage, an abused wife, but what they can't tell you is that Thomas ever hit Annabeth or that she was ever in imminent fear of physical harm. This is a very simple case. Annabeth Pearl is guilty of murder in the second degree. ---- :Stella Russell: What Mr. Stone didn't tell you was that Thomas took one bite of his New York strip, spit it out, and then told Annabeth he was going to give the rest to the neighbor's beagle. What Mr. Stone didn't tell you was that that dinner was the culmination of six years of continuous psychological abuse. The straw that crippled the camel, if you will. Criticism, insults, blame, all of which served to diminish Annabeth's dignity, destroy her self-worth, and erase her self-confidence. Now, Mr. Stone may call what Annabeth did "murder," but I call it self-preservation. I'm sure you will, too. ---- :Fin: Carisi Look, man, we can only do our job. :Carisi: What, that's all this is to you? :Fin: Yeah. I get up in the morning and I get dressed. I come to the office. After that, I go home. At the end of the week, I get a check and the check clears. That's called a job. ---- :Olivia: Amanda, I'm sorry about what your father did to your mother. :Amanda: See? I mean, that's exactly what I'm talking about. My mother didn't have to be a victim. :Olivia: I'm not talking about your mother. I'm talking about you. Do you really think that your father beating the hell out of your mother in front of you didn't color your whole universe? :Rollins: Sure it did, but not in the way you think. 'Cause I remember sitting in my room staring out the window after one of their knock-down drag-outs, and I remember looking out the window and there was a... a streetlamp, and it was the closest one was on the corner, so it was it was dark, eerie. And I sat there looking out, watching and waiting and praying for my daddy to come back. Uh, and the son of a bitch just beat the snot out of my mother, but I wanted him back home. :Olivia: Of course you did, 'cause all children want their parents together no matter what, Amanda. Good, bad, indifferent... :Amanda: She could have called the sheriff. I mean, Christ, we had a gun locker in the house, but she had to be a martyr. I mean, I don't think she'd know what to do with herself if she wasn't suffering or cowering. :Olivia: Yes, because he made her like that. :Amanda: You don't know! There was a weakness in her! There was a weakness and it was there before they ever even met. :Olivia: How do you know that? :Amanda: Because this is this. It's not that. But you know, I... I know. Believe me, I know, because I was the one staring out that window waiting for my daddy's shadow to come out of that street lamp. Come up the sidewalk, up the front walk, and back into our house. I was the one that was petrified that I would end up weak like my mom if he didn't come back! :Olivia: Amanda, that's not a reason to hate your mother. Maybe it's time for you to come out from under that shadow. ---- :Stella Russell: One more thing, Detective. This isn't exactly what the room looked like when you went into it, is it? :Carisi: Uh, no. The television was on. :Stella Russell: I'm confused. The apartment's not that big. If the TV was on when you walked in the front door, I think you would have heard it. :Carisi: Well, the TV was on, but the volume was muted. :Stella Russell: Almost as if Tommy and Annabeth spoke before she shot him. :Carisi: I wouldn't know about that. :Stella Russell: But they might have, right? In fact, it is possible that Tommy said, "I love you, sweetie." :Carisi: Yeah, it's possible. It's also possible he said, "You ruined my dinner, bitch. Now I'm gonna kill you." ---- :Fin: Look, last Sunday I went fishing off of Sheepshead Bay. Four hours passed, not a nibble. Then right when I'm ready to pack it up, my rod starts jerking. So I start reeling. I'm reeling. I swear, I've never had a perp fight that hard. And then there it was, flopping around on the deck of the boat, a 35-pound bluefish. The most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life. :Olivia: That's... that's great, Fin. :Fin: I threw it back in the bay. Anything that's willing to fight that hard to stay alive deserves to live. ---- :Rollins: You know what, I've got one question for you: Why didn't she walk out the door? Why didn't she leave the damn bastard? :Olivia: Are you kidding me, Amanda? :Rollins: No! For it to be a justifiable homicide, there had to be an imminent threat of death or or serious physical harm, right? And was Tommy about to beat Annabeth? No. Was he about to rape her? No! You know how I know that? Because that's what she told you. :Carisi: When I was in the bag, I took a domestic disturbance call. All right? Craig and Ellen Carter. Their neighbor was complaining because they were screaming at each other all night. They were cursing. So I show up. I calm everybody down and do, you know, what we're supposed to do. And I'm looking at this guy and I can just see in his eyes. And he's got that smirk, you know? So I take Ellen outside, and I say, "Listen. Listen, you've gotta stand up for yourself." I told her that she needed to leave this guy, but there's no signs of physical violence, so that's that's all I can do. A month later, I get another call. The same house, same complaint. Only this time Craig is taking her head and bashing it against the wall, and she's dead. So don't you stand there and say that all she had to do was walk out the damn door! ---- :Stone Olivia: You keep your bleeding heart out of my courtroom. ---- :Stone Olivia: Lieutenant, you just reached out and put your hand on the Bible and swore to tell us the truth. Did the defendant, Ms. Annabeth Pearl, express remorse for what she did? :Olivia: No. :Peter Stone: What, if anything, did she say in that regard? :Olivia: She said that... she said that she was glad that her husband was dead and that she'd prayed about it for years. ---- Background Information and Notes *There is a deleted scene with Amanda Rollins and Frank Bucci as they waited in the room for their turn to testify. Category:SVU episodes